Clean List = Better ROI
Keeping a database clean and up-to-date isn’t an easy or exciting task, but it is one that directly impacts your bottom line. If your database is messy, you are throwing money away every time you send an e-mail.
What to do if you have a messy database:
- Ensure that customer data is properly collected in the first place so that there will be less need to clean it up later. Implement a consistent process for entering contact records into your database. In the database world we are all aware of the acronym GIGO—garbage in, garbage out.
- Clean your list regularly by removing or amending incorrect data and getting rid of duplicate entries. You will quickly alienate your contacts if you send them e-mails that are irrelevant to them.
- Make sure prospect and communication data is standardized, cleansed and matched prior to loading it to your e-mail database.
- When acquiring data through web forms or data appends, it’s important to do a post process that puts all data in the same format.
- When you send your data out for hygiene make sure you get what you ask for. Each data company has a different definition of what data hygiene means.
